Month: August 2017

Waterford will release an automatic software update on August 30, 2017. See what’s in this release in the list below. If you have any questions, our Support Team is always happy to help!

Product Updates

Curriculet is our new independent reading program for grades 3-12. A curriculet is a digital layer of checkpoints—questions, rich media experiences and assessments. Curriculets can be embedded in any digital text in the Curriculet eReader or used alongside any book from your own library (print or digital) with the Curriculet External Reader.

This release adds three new features to the Curriculet External Reader:

Teachers can create External Reader curriculets for books or texts we don’t already have in our library. This means a teacher can now create a curriculet to use alongside any text they have in their curriculum.

Teachers can edit an existing External Reader curriculet. Teachers can now add, remove, edit or reorder checkpoints and experiences within an existing External Reader curriculet. Teachers do not need a book license to make changes to an External Reader curriculet; these curriculets are used alongside an outside print or digital text.

Existing curriculets in the External Reader now show highlighted text. In the eReader, experiences are attached to highlighted text within the novel. Now, you can see that snippet of highlighted text along with the experience in the External Reader too.

Resolved Issues

MY HOMEWORK AND MY CLASSES
You will see and click into all of your upcoming and current assignments in the “Book Bag” section. “Classes”—located in the dropdown menu under your name—tells you the classes you are enrolled in, and allows you to enter a token to enroll in a new class.

PROGRESS
The “Progress” page shows your completed homework assignments. You can click into any assignment and see more information, like the chapters you’ve read and questions you’ve answered.

You can click on each book and assignment to go back and review your work.

LIBRARY

Your teacher can assign you books to read within Curriculet or assign you print books and have you login to use Curriculet.

Your teacher will invite you to join his or her class in one of two ways: token or class URL.

via token
Your teacher will give you a token for the class you’re in. Go to www.curriculet.org/login.If you already have a Curriculet account, you:

Log in

Click on your name in the navigation.

Click on “Classes” under the dropdown menu.

Click the “Enroll in a New Class” button.

Enter token and click enroll.

If you do not already have a Curriculet account, you:

Click “New student? Create your account here!”

Enter account info and token.

Click “Sign Up.”

Your account will be created and you will be automatically added to the class.

NOTE: Make sure you remember your password!

via class URL
Your teacher will give you a custom class URL, and when you go to it you’ll be prompted to make an account or log into your existing account. When you use this URL, you will be automatically enrolled in your class on Curriculet.

For students reading in Curriculet’s library:
Curriculet’s on-demand digital library has curriculets embedded directly into its texts. As students read, the curriculets you’ve assigned—checkpoints, rich-media experiences and quizzes—pop out of the text, so students are instructed and assessed as they read.

Student Annotation
Students can annotate and define any word on Curriculet’s eReader. Students can add annotations by selecting text and adding their annotation into the window (just like teachers make checkpoints). Student annotations appear as icons in the margins that they can go back to and view later. Student annotations are a different color than teacher annotations, so they are easily decipherable. They are visible only to that student.

Definition Tool
Definitions are available for any word in the text itself as well as the words in the question and answer options. To see a definition students simply click the word they want to define and hold until the blue text selector pops up. When students release the click, a “Define” option will appear.

Feedback for Students
Students get immediate feedback on the comprehension questions they answer in the text. Students can also see their quiz results immediately after taking them, and view reports on their progress on the “Progress” screen.

For students reading a print book or digital book outside Curriculet:
Students can read books in any format and then login to Curriculet to access checkpoints—questions, experiences and assessments—for each chapter using the external reader tool.

To view the Curriculet, they click on the book under their “Assignments.” The external reader will show that book’s chapters and curriculet content. Students can answer or view the curriculet questions, experiences and quizzes in order.

Students get immediate feedback on the comprehension questions they answer. They can also see their quiz results immediately after taking them, and view reports on their progress on the “Progress” screen.

Go to “Data,” select a class, select an assignment, and then a chapter. Click the “Grade Open-Ended Questions” button.

Next to each student answer, click the ✔ (yes) or X (no) to show if they were correct or incorrect. Add a comment by clicking the “Comment” button or filling in the popup box when you mark an answer incorrect.

Individualized student reports allow you to hone in on the progress and needs of your students.

You can find out how long it took students to complete a reading assignment, and which questions and standards they struggled with. This can help you craft specific remediation plans for individual students, small groups of students, and whole classes.

Full-class reports tell you how the class did as a whole. These reports can help you plan your lessons; if you know, for example, that 75 percent of the class struggled on questions about theme, then you can address theme in class the next day.

You can highlight text that is part of a checkpoint. When you create a checkpoint, select the box that says “Highlight selected text when this question is shown.” If you do not check the box, the question will appear in the margin, but no text will be highlighted.

Note: You can only highlight text that was selected when you added your checkpoint, so if you want your students to consider a particular word, phrase, or sentence, be sure to make your text selection accordingly.

You can add multiple choice quizzes at any point in a text. Quizzes are automatically graded. Students get immediate feedback that includes their correct/incorrect answers and quiz grades. Teachers can see each student’s individual answers and quiz grades in reports.

For multiple choice questions, Curriculet randomizes the possible answers. This means the order of the available answers is shuffled for each student. When writing questions where all or none of the answers are correct, use the wording “All answers are correct” or “No answers are correct” instead of “All of the above” or “None of the above.”

Curriculet eReader: Click and drag to select text. Select “Add Quiz” from the checkpoint menu, name the quiz and start entering questions.

Note: To make a quiz the final checkpoint in a chapter insert it on the last word of that chapter.

External Reader: Select the chapter where you want to add a quiz. Click on the quiz button displayed under the chapter list. This adds the quiz to the bottom of the list. (Please note that if you have a lot of checkpoints in the chapter, it might not look like you are adding anything. Scroll down to see your newly added quiz!) Click on the quiz to bring up the editing window. From there, you can start adding questions to your quiz. Use the up and down arrows to move a completed quiz to another position within a chapter. You can not move checkpoints across chapters.

Curriculet gives you the flexibility to create and edit your own curriculets or edit existing ones by adding checkpoints.

A checkpoint is any information, rich media or assessment you embed into a text. There are three types of checkpoints: questions (which can be multiple choice or open-ended questions), experiences (which include text, images, and videos), and assessments (quizzes). Checkpoint icons appear in the margin next to the selected text.

There are different steps to creating and editing curriculets depending on if your class is reading a book in Curriculet’s eReader or using your own external texts. We break these steps out below.

Use experiences to communicate with students as they read, and to show and ask them things that will ultimately help them truly understand a text.

Curriculet eReader: To add an experience, click a word and hold until the blue selector pops up. Drag over the text you want to select. A checkpoint menu will pop up. The “Annotate” option allows you to add text or rich media.

To add text, simply type whatever you want to appear as an experience and click save. For rich media, paste the URL you’d like to embed in the annotation box. Click “Save.”

External Reader: Select the chapter where you want to add an experience. Click on the experience button (light blue page) under the chapter list. This adds the experience to the bottom of the list. (Please note that if you have a lot of checkpoints in the chapter, it might not look like you are adding anything. Scroll down to see your newly added experience!)

Click on the experience to bring up the editing window. To add text to an experience, type it into the top text box and save. For rich media, paste the URL you’d like to embed in the annotation box. Click “Save.” Use the up and down arrows to move an experience within a chapter. You can not move checkpoints across chapters.